Is This a New Kind of Infection?
by The Glass Crow
Summary: "This pain... is this what you call affection?" she questioned, her eyebrows knitting together. "No. It's still an infection, just slightly less detrimental to your health." "Really?" "No. It still sucks." ItachiOc ItachiXOc Oc  Rittienne


Rittienne slowed her run, her eyes searching around for something to grasp onto. Her lips parted steadily as pants wracked her chest, the running having been too much for her in her sleep deprived state. Using her Shinigami Eye, she closed one eye, but left the other, completely filled-in eye open.

The lone dark eye slowly slid closed, then open again. The other yellow orb remained closed as she focused all of her chakra into her right eye, the blood already beginning to leak like tears from the outside corner.

Infection, that is what her clan had called it. She had the Infection. The curse.

But it helped her see all.

Scanning the area, she saw that the ninja that had been following her stopped as well. Looking at his form, she could no longer tell what he looked like. There was only an outline of the chakra, the average blue color, just as the sensors see. But in her head, she could see everything about him.

Name; Takahashi Shitou

Age; twenty-seven

Rank; seemingly a Jonin

His mother died when he was three, his father left him in the care of a relative and went off to war with the Kyuubi when he was... ten or eleven...? And he was injected with a poison during imprisonment at Amegakure that will haunt him until it ultimately kills him.

Rough life. _I'll just go ahead and spare him the misery._

With a quick flick of her skinny fingers, she sent an ice kunai, her specialty, deep into the throat of her assailant. He choked on his own blood, for speed was his weakness.

Without a second thought, she quickly closed the Shinigami Eye and opened her left one, finally able to see the world as other people do.

The bleeding still didn't stop. _Ugh. I'm using this too much. Maybe the clan leaders were right, maybe activating this wasn't a good idea._

She shifted the pack on her shoulders so it was easier to carry, and leapt through the trees and undergrowth, trying to ignore the growing pain in her side from all the movement. Running never was her specialty, and now that that jutsu renders her unable to sleep, she is at a huge disadvantage.

_Shinigami Eye! _She hissed mentally. _What a waste. Go blind, sure. Fine by me, still have one good eye. But they never told me you couldn't sleep once you had activated it! All the intelligence and information in the world won't change the fact that my favorite pastime has now been rudely snatched away. Dangit._

Rittienne continued to lurch haphazardly through the trees, her speed having been diminished from the start when she thought she could outran a man who had had better rest that she had. Her muscles ached, as did her bleeding eye.

"Rittienne!" A voice broke through her thoughts. She turned her head to see her best friend and comrade sprinting up to her.

"Mika. What do you want, longlegs?" she joked weakly, already dizzy from over exertion. Mika giggled stupidly, her eyes closing and her head cocking slightly to the side.

"I got us another mission! Gosh, why didn't you tell me being a rogue ninja would be so easy? Seriously! Every ninja they've sent after us was so easy to disarm! Do they think we would seriously be so easy?" She laughed manically now, her voice rising a few octaves, "Damnit girl!"

She hissed when she caught sight of Rittienne's bleeding.

"I know," Rittienne replied simply, letting it drop at that.

Mika frowned, but didn't question her friend's strange indifference to the Infection she unleashed upon herself. She pretended she didn't notice the pain reflection in her bestfriend's single eye, the loss and the fatigue. Mika let out a small sigh of frustration.

"Akatsuki. That's our new objective," Mika continued quickly, sensing Rittienne's impatience. Any longer, and the small girl would've used her eye jutsu again, simply worsening her condition. Mika couldn't have that.

"I understand," Rittienne sighed, rolling her shoulders and popping her back. Her blonde companion scowled at the fiery-haired girl.

"What, pray tell, do you understand, Ritti-chan?" she growled, leaning heavily against the trunk of a tree.

"I need to use Shinigami Eye, ne?" She hissed, completely caught off guard by her friend's defensive voice and slacking profile. Mika never rested. She was always bouncy.

"No,"

"...No?"

"No." She rubbed her temples, her tan skin seeming unnaturally dark in the light that filtered through the trees. Mika sighed, looking deep into Rittienne's eyes... er, eye.

"This isn't just a hit and need to infiltrate Akatsuki and then use your eye on the Leader, who we believe to obtain Rinnegan, but are unsure," she paused, her frown deepening. "If you don't want this mission, I won't force it on you. This would be our first mission apart, and I-"

"I'll be fine," Rittienne hissed gruffly, jerking back away from Mika- still a good five yards away from her- as though she had been stung. The blonde girl tried to explain her reasoning, her silver-blue eyes flashing in regret. "Forget it. I'll do your mission. I don't need your help, I never did," Ouch. That had to hurt Mika's pride.

Turns out, it just made her sad.

Not that Rittienne knew that.

"Go then, Rittienne."

The ginger didn't wait for further instruction. Her anger was childish, yes, but it made sense in her mind. She hated being thought little of, of being weak. It made everything seem like a horrible dream.


End file.
